It's no mistake that Melbourne is my favourite Australian city either you know :D Going down there in about 15 days for the DBM world championships :D

Damn! And we thought we'd escaped :-)

(you try living in an ultra-conservative, parochial, large country town with delusions of grandeur)

Evidently I see Brisbane rather differently to you - perhaps it's because I live on the South side. =P

Each to his own, and Brisbane is certainly not to everyone's taste. =) What stands out for me from your post is the way you feel where you live causes something to be "missing" in you, or causes "walls" to go up.

As someone who has moved several times to get away from her problems, or "make a new start", my only advice is the one thing you always take with you is you. Moving can bring you new opportunities, new places, new faces, but it can't fix anything inside you.

Just something to consider, maybe. Or perhaps you have already thought about this, in which case feel free to tell me to cork my cakehole. =)

I disagree.
It took me moving states to work out who I really was.
Once I knew that, I could start believing in me, not an ideal of me.
Consequently, I'm waaaay more stable now than I have been in almost a decade.

Which is a part of the point.

It took me moving to England to figure out that Melbourne was home and exactly what that meant, but I would never have come to that understanding if I had not moved to England.

Sometimes the journey is the reason...

The fact that the 'from' was Canberra, and the 'to' was Sydney had alot to do with things too...

I'm pretty sure ozisim remembers whether she moved from Canberra to Sydney or not.

My theory, my facts.
I was referring to myself.

Thanks for the thoughts, both of you. I understand where you are coming from, but there is one thing that you may not have thought of the full implications of.

I am gay.

Brisbane is very red-neck in some of it's attitudes. It's attitude on homosexuality is one of those. I saw many times a pair of people of the same sex wandering down the streets in Melbourne holding hands. There is no way I would see the same thing here in Brisbane.

The constant reminder that "my kind" aren't welcome here hurts. Constantly having to pretend to be someone I'm not just so I don't get beaten up on the street is not something I want to live with.

I find the people in Melbourne are more open and accepting than most of the people here are. catdraco, you are an exception to that, and for that I thank you, but unfortunatly you are not part of the majority.

That level of acceptance is something I am looking for.

Plus lots of great friends (I have more friends in Melbourne than I do in Brisbane) has made up my mind.

But thanks again for your words. I will think on them, I promise.

Hmm, no, your neck isn't red. I see some purple, green, yellow and, let me have a look, yep, there's a bit of blue underneath your left ear.

Thanks. *hugs*

Hey, stop singing my song! :-)

My plan is as soon as I get the degree (whatever it is heh) I'm down there. *nods*

From what we discussed (albeit briefly) I think that the move will be a good one for you. And if it isn't, well, there's no reason why you have to *stop* in Melbourne!

I am having the same feelings, I must confess. Melbourne changed me this time. Must be the water...

Thank you for your wonderful company and intriguing game. See you again soon!

I love Melbourne but I can't handle the weather. Why don't we just pick it up and drop it on Ipswich? No one will miss Ipswich.

you are welcome at mine and designadrug's place any time it was a pleasure to have you with us for the last week.

I've been really disappointed that I didn't spend time over the last two weeks with you after Conquest. Very much my own fault, but it'll be great having you in town on a longer-term basis :)

Well, that adds priority to writing the event I was hoping to playtest at Unicon. Not that I have time for any such thing, but there you go :)

Even though I only really got to hang out with you at Cabaret Nocturne after Conquest, it was a lot of fun. Looking forward to you being down here more :)

There is truth in the fact that whatever is within you doesn't change according to where you live. However I've definitely found that some places encourage you to discover yourself more. I grew up in Geelong and went to a Christian school. After being burned a coupla times, I learnt to build the walls pretty damn high and didn't trust anyone enough to let them in on more than an inkling of my life.
I only started to discover myself once I was living in a city more accepting of alternative lifestyles, and once I met many of the people I'm so fortunate to call my friends now. I was nervous about returning to Japan, because I knew that would be putting myself back into a constrictive box and severing 1a good third of my personality (through language barriers as much as conservatism barriers). However this time round I've found that I've met people who accept me for what I am and for most part, who are slightly deviant themselves. I'm not sure exactly where this is going except that it seems that once you've got a home base where you feel totally loved and accepted and normal, somehow the confidence that gives you allows you to find small pieces of that wherever you go.
Will look forward to seeing you in Melbourne 2007!!!